Catch Me
by meltina
Summary: Before she goes on a mission with Neji, Sakura has to know if she can trust him. Hence, her test. Oneshot.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto. Woe is me.

**Comments**: Hello, and thanks for showing interest (I hope?) in my third ever Naruto fic. As with my other fic, entitled _Sunshine_, this one's Semi-AU---it takes several years in the future of the current storyline. In fact, it might help if you read that one first before diving into this one, although it is not necessary. Enjoy (I hope?). All feedback and concrit highly appreciated!

---

They had been at it for over two hours with no results.

She had been nearly there on a number of occasions but never went all the way. He, on the other hand, was growing characteristically impatient.

"This is ridiculous."

"No, it's not! This is important! I have to know that I'll be able to trust you before I can go on a mission with you. Now, stand right there and get ready..."

"Trust was a concept drilled into our heads at the Academy. I think we, as jounin and chuunin respectively, have moved beyond that."

The young woman balancing on the all too narrow tree branch high above sneered down at the man on normal ground. "And here I thought Hinata was the naive one of the family." She held her arms akimbo then gestured with one hand to their environs. "Hello, Neji. Welcome to Konoha, where over ten years ago, Uchiha Itachi, a graduate of said Academy, violated the trust of dozens of people, including his own clan, by killing them."

Sometimes, there was nothing Neji wouldn't do to have the old Haruno Sakura back...

His jaw clenched in frustration. "Whatever," he said after forcing himself to calm down. "You don't have to do this, you know."

"I told you: I need to know if I can trust you."

"You can trust me." If she didn't come to know him better during the past few months, she would have thought that that his monotone and unfelt voice belied his statement.

"Easier said than done." Sakura turned one hundred and eighty degrees so that her back was to him.

Neji stood, waiting for her to get this stupid test over with so he could go back to preparing for the next day's A-rank mission. He watched as her thin arms extended out to the sides and how her shoulders rose and sank when she took in a deep breath and prepared to fall back so that he could catch her.

Yet she hesitated.

He didn't need the Byakugan to know what was going on up there. A sudden fear had swelled in her gut and forced her to maintain the steady chakra flow to her feet, keeping her safely attached to the branch of the tall tree. She couldn't do this.

After some time, Sakura spoke up in an apologetic tone: "Perhaps you should request a different medic-nin for the mission." She crouched and turned around and didn't look surprised to see the white eyes of the Hyuuga narrowed in a glare toward her.

"I sincerely doubt Tsunade-sama would give the squad a new medic-nin simply because you can't drop down from a tree."

"It's not that I can't drop down from this tree, Neji. I know I can," the young woman uttered. "It's that I can't drop down from this tree into your arms."

Neji's dark eyebrows furrowed. "Why the Hell not?" He shook his head clear of impending thoughts and went with the one that he was sure was the end all. "You're just afraid of getting hurt from the fall."

But Sakura was stubborn. "Not true. I've done this countless times, with many people, too. Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Sasuke, Naruto... Heck, I've even done this with Ino-pig. And I... I never once hesitated with them like I've been hesitating with you today."

"So because you're hesitating, you take that as a warning that I won't catch you?"

Sakura nodded.

The noble blood coursing through Neji's veins grew hot and he didn't know why. All he knew was that he'd had his tolerable limit of frustrations for one day. "This is a waste of time. I'm leaving."

Neji turned to depart, not caring whether or not Sakura came down from the tree.

"If this test was such a waste of your precious time, grumpy, why did you agree to it in the first place?"

Her words caused him to promptly stop in his tracks and whirl about to regard her, ready to give her a Hyuuga-brand harangue she'd never forget. But when Neji opened his mouth to retort nothing came out.

She had a point. A very good point. There was no written law that stated he had to come to the forest entry, nor was he required to participate in this test of trust she had set up for him. He could have easily just walked away, yet he stayed there for nearly two hours with his arms open, waiting for her to fall into them when she was ready.

_Why?_

Why did he agree to it? To shut her up? Yes, but only partly because she would have easily found something else to nag his ear off about. And here he thought Tenten had nagged a lot when they were on the same team. She was nothing in comparison to this pink-haired bombshell.

And that was when he realized it.

Nagging.

_Of-freakin'-course._

The past year had been a tumultuous time for Neji, with a new life-altering experience just about every month it seemed. The guerrilla wars, his ANBU unit being ambushed, his injury, his time in the hospital, his position as an ANBU captain being revoked, the upcoming mission to the Lightning Country...

Sakura's nagging and occasional poorly-timed sarcasm and blunt behavior had been the only constant in his life for the past few months. Now that he had gotten used to it as one of her quirks, he couldn't imagine spending a few weeks in another land without having her there to complain about how he needed to smile more and smirk less, or how he needed to wear his hair in a low ponytail more often. It'd be too weird otherwise.

"Because, woman..." he sighed, exasperated. "You'd never let me hear the end of it."

Sakura's grin practically reached her ears. "Aaaaand?" she pressed on.

_Dammit, Haruno_. "...I don't want a different medic-nin on my squad."

"Why?"

He sighed. "Because I trust you..."

"Hm. Well, I did see you three-quarters naked nearly every day for that month you were in the hospital and I didn't try anything, so I can see why you trust me." Sakura mused at his slightly reddened face. She was practically leering at him now. "And what else?"

Neji wanted to scowl at her but only managed a sneer; it wasn't as if he was mad at her or anything. He couldn't be, no matter how hard he tried. "How old are you again, Haruno?" He smirked.

"Twenty-two."

"Really? You could have fooled me. I was guessing not a day over fifteen..."

"Very funny, Neji!" she chucked an acorn at him which he dodged by casually tilting his head to the side. "And dammit, I know what you're going to say, so just save us both the time and come out and say it."

"Why? You already know what I'm going to say."

"It doesn't matter why. Just say it! And if you don't say it, I'm not coming down from this tree."

Knowing that Sakura, if pushed, had a will that matched Naruto's, Neji conceded: "...I want you to trust me implicitly. Like how I trust you."

Sakura flashed him a grin and a wink. "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Just shut up and get down from there. We have mission preparations to complete."

"Yes, boss!"

Sakura stood from her crouched position and turned to hop down from the tree. She misjudged her take-off step, however, and promptly lost her balance. If Neji hadn't seen the helpless flail of her arms, he wouldn't have noticed a thing.

Out of alarm, his Byakugan had been activated and for a brief moment, all he had seen were the blue swirls of chakra in the feminine outline of his friend's body plummeting at a rapid pace toward the ground. Luckily, Neji had cat-like reflexes and slid to where she would have landed in a heap if he had not been there to catch her.

"Sakura!" Cradling her in his arms, he took to a knee and inspected her for any injuries. Save for perhaps a bruise or two, Sakura was all right but she had been struck silent and her eyes were closed. He shook her gently. "Sakura! Can you hear me? You've been through worse... Answer me!"

Neji cupped her chin with his hand and lifted it so that he could take a better look at her face. Imagine his surprise when the lips of that same face broke out into a wide grin. Suddenly, a pair of the brightest green eyes he had ever seen were peering up at him in sheer amusement and joy.

"Congratulations, Hyuuga Neji. You have passed my test."

-- finis ---

Hm. I'm beginning to like this little pair... Although my version of Sakura reminds me of Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction sometimes (especially in Sunshine). I don't know why... oo


End file.
